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1913 



PROCEEDINGS 

^ ADDRESSES 
Commemorative of the 

TWO HUNDREDTH 

ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE INCORPORATION OF 

THE TOWN OF 
LEXINGTON 



^1"^^ 



I9I3 



PROCEEDINGS 

^ ADDRESSES 
Commemorative of the 

TWO HUNDREDTH 

ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE INCORPORATION OF 

THE TOWN OF 

LEXINGTON 




Published by Vote of The Town 
June 25, 1914 



GENERAL COMMITTEE 






Alonzo E. Locke, Chairman 
Edwin A. Bayley 
Edward P. Bliss 
Frank C. Childs 
George H. Childs 
Harry F. Fay 
George D. Harrington 
J. Chester Hutchinson 
Dr. John H. Kane 
Charles G. Kauffmann 

Edward W. 



Herbert G. Locke 
James P. Munroe 
Timothy H. O'Connor 
Frank D. Peirce 
Alfred Pierce 
Dr. Fred S. Piper 
Elwyn G. Preston 
Frank H. Reed 
Lester E. Smith 
Edwin C. Stevens 
Taylor 



SUB-COMMITTEES OF ANNIVERSARY 



Historical Exercises 

Dr. Fred S. Piper, 

Chairman 
Rev. A. B. Crichton 
Harry F. Fay 
Dr. John H. Kane 
Rev. Samuel Knowles 
Rev. George E. Martin 
Rev. Michael J. Owens 
Rev. H. L. Pickett 
Elwyn G. Preston 
Rev. John M. Wilson 

Early Morning 
Exercises 

Herbert G. Locke, 

Chairman 
Francis Burke 
George D. Harrington 
Clayton G. Locke 
Edward Maguire 
Frank H. Reed 
Edward W. Taylor 
Edwin B. Worthen 

Parade 

Edwin C. Stevens, 

Chairman 
Lucius A. Austin 
George E. Briggs 
Charles J. Dailey 
Arthur F. Hutchinson 
Clarence E. Johnson 
Charles G. Kauffmann 
Herbert G. Locke 
Howard S. O. Nichols 
Alfred Pierce 
Christopher S. Ryan 
Robert L. Ryder 
George F. Smith 
Lester E. Smith 
Lewis C. Sturtevant 
George S. Teague 



Printing and 
Invitations 

Alonzo E.. Locke, 

Chairman 
Edwin A. Bayley 
George H. Childs 
Elwyn G. Preston 
Jay O. Richards 



Banquet 

James F. Russell, 

Chairman 
George H. Childs 
J. Chester Hutchinson 



Entertainment 
Visiting Militia 

George F. Reed, 

Chairman 
Alfred Pierce 

Music 

Edward W. Taylor, 

Chairman 
Clarence E. Briggs 
Charles H. Bugbee 
Herbert G. Locke 
Edward P. Merriam 
Henry T. Prario 
Arthur F. Tucker 

Illumination 

Frank D. Peirce 
J. Willard Hayden, Jr. 
Charles H. Miles 
Albert B. Tenney 
William S. Scamman 



Decorating 

George H. Childs, 

Chairman 
William H. Burke 
Henry R. Comley 
William Hunt 
Fred G. Jones 
Eugene G. Kraetzer 
Edward H. Mara 
Timothy H. O'Connor 
Clifford W. Pierce 
William L. Smith 
Alfred E. Robinson 
George W. Spaulding 
Fred J. Spencer 
William A. Staples 
James J. Walsh 

Athletic Sports 

William E. Mulliken, 

Chairman 
Fred C. Ball 
Albert L Carson 
Phillip Clark 
Frank P. Cutter 
John G. Fitzgerald 
J. Chester Hutchinson 
Rev. Samuel Knowles 
Clayton G. Locke 
Edward H. Mara 
Robert Merriam 
David F. Murphy 
Henry T. Prario 
Richard G. Preston 
Rev. Henry J. Ryan 
Richard Sherburne 
Fred J. Spencer 
John J. Ventura 






FOREWORD 

Lexington was incorporated on the twentieth of 
March, 17 12, Old Style (31st March 171 3 New Style), 
previous to which date it had been, from its first settle- 
ment, a part of Cambridge. The better to enjoy the 
anniversary exercises out of doors when the landscape 
and the weather are most beautiful in our town, the 
celebration was assigned to June instead of the actual 
date of incorporation. 

The weather during the three days, June eighth, 
ninth and tenth, was all that could be desired and 
the highways, byways and private grounds presented 
a most attractive appearance. 

Public and private buildings, particularly along the 
main avenues of travel, were attractively and lavishly 
decorated with colored buntings, flags and emblems. 
The illumination of the Common by colored electric 
lights and the effect of these lights upon the foliage 
and the Minute-Man gave to this sanctified spot the 
appearance of a beautiful fairy-land by night. Two thou- 
sand colored incandescent lamps bordered the Green, 
formed festoons upon the flag staff and illuminated 
the spire of the First Parish Church. The word "Wel- 
come," made of incandescent lights in large letters 
approximately two feet in height, was suspended over 
Massachusetts Avenue at the junction of Woburn 
Street, the same again at Parker Street and at 
the junction of Waltham and Middle Streets. The 
illumination was admired and enjoyed by the residents 
of Lexington generally and by thousands of the most 

[ 3 ] 



orderly people from beyond our borders until all avail- 
able space about the Common and adjacent streets 
was crowded to the limit by automobiles and teams. 

Quite a part of this beautiful display was due to the 
extraordinary resources of the committee in charge. 

One of the most unique and ideal features of the 
entire celebration and ever-to-be-remembered by all 
who heard and witnessed it was the early morning 
singing on Tuesday by a double male quartette and, 
more particularly, the singing by the school children 
on the Common. 

The principal spectacular event was the military 
parade and dress parade on Tuesday, reviewed by the 
Governor and distinguished guests. Three hundred 
and thirty-eight men in Colonial uniforms, represent- 
ing nine different organizations of New England, 
participated. It was appropriate to the town's honor- 
able history and very graciously did these men per- 
form their parts, the Lexington Minute-Men acting 
as hosts. Much praise is due the Lexington Minute- 
Men and their officers for this successful feature of 
the celebration. 

The literary exercises in the town hall on Sunday 
afternoon were dignified, timely and highly creditable, 
and are preserved herewith in print for our welfare 
and the interest of future generations. 

The pastors of all the churches in town were re- 
quested to have commemorative services in their re- 
spective churches on Sunday morning, June the eighth, 
and from this beginning to the close of the celebra- 
tion on Tuesday night, June the tenth, the many 
and varied features were appropriate, enjoyable and 
eminently satisfactory. 

F. S. P. 



[ 4 ] 



ORDER OF EXERCISES 

Sunday, June 8th, 4 p. m., Historical Exer- 
cises in the Town Hall 



1. Singing by lOO children of Lexington Public 

Schools. 

2. Introductory Address — Mr. Alonzo E. Locke, 

President of the Lexington Historical Society. 

3. Historical Address — Mr. James Phinney Mun- 

ROE. 

4. Singing by School Children. 

5. Oration — Reverend Edward Cummings. 

6. Singing by School Children. 

7. Poem — Mr. Percy MacKaye. 

8. Singing — ** America" by audience. 

The singing by the school children will be under the direction of 
Miss Mary E. Berry, Supervisor of Music. 



Monday, June 9th — Old Home Day 

6 A. M. Salute from Granny Hill. Ringing of Bells. 
This salute will be signal for starting the Town 
Crier — Mr. Herbert G. Locke, accompanied by 
young ladies in Colonial costumes, over Paul Re- 
vere route, who will announce program of celebra- 
tion. 

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9 A. M. On Parker Street Athletic Field and contin- 
uing throughout the morning and afternoon, Ath- 
letic Contests and Sports, with Base Ball game in 
the afternoon. 

EVENTS. 

One mile run, Half mile run, 440 yards run, 220 
yards run, 100 yard dash, 40 yard dash. Shot put, 
Pole vault. Running broad jump. Running high jump, 
Relay Race. (4 contestants each team.) 

Divided into senior, intermediate and junior classes. 
Medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Entries closed 
May 31st. 

Miscellaneous sports open to all. Entries received 
June 9th. 

8 P. M. Band Concert on Common by Waltham 
Watch Company Band. 

Tuesday, June 10th — Governor's Day 

6 A. M. Salute from Granny Hill. Ringing of Bells. 

This salute will be signal for starting Town Crier, 
accompanied by Double Male Quartette, over 
Paul Revere route. Quartette will sing at or near 
Mass. Avenue and Pleasant Street; Village Hall; 
Munroe Tavern; High School; Town Hall; Han- 
cock School; Mass. Avenue and Parker Street; 
Mass. Avenue opposite Mr. A. J. Moody's; Han- 
cock-Clarke House. 

7 A. M. Children of Public Schools will meet on 

Battle Green and join with Quartette in singing 
patriotic songs. 

10.30 A. M. Military Parade. 

Edwin C. Stevens, Chief Marshal 
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Aids: 
Capt. C. A. Ranlett, Chief of Staff 
Capt. Julian I. Chamberlain John H. Willard 
Howard S. O. Nichols Herbert W. Reed 

James F. McCarthy Robert L. Ryder 

William A. Muller Edward L. Child 

Horatio A. Phinney Charles C. Doe 

Starting from East Lexington Railroad Station, 
will proceed over Massachusetts Avenue to Hastings 
Park. 

Governor Eugene N. Foss and Staff, Lieut.-Gov. 
David I. Walsh and invited guests, escorted by 

Lexington Minute-Men, with Waltham Watch 
Company Band. 

Second Company Governor's Foot Guard, of New 
Haven, Conn., with Band. 

Worcester Continentals of Worcester, Mass., with 
Drum Corps. 

Varnum Continentals of East Greenwich, R. L, 
with Drum Corps. 

Detail from Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
Company, Amoskeag Veterans, Manchester, N. H., 
British Military and Naval Veterans' Association, 
National Lancers, Boston Fusilier Veterans. 

Lexington School Color Guard, Lexington Drum 
Corps. 

George G. Meade Post 119, G. A. R. 
Col. John W. Hudson Camp 105, Sons of Veterans. 
Lexington Fire Department with Apparatus. 
11.30 A.M. Review of Parade by Governor and 
Invited Guests from stand in front of Old Monu- 
ment on Battle Green. 

I P. M. Public Reception to Governor and other 
guests, in Cary Hall. 

[ 7 ] 



I.30 P. M. Banquet in Town Hall. 

Edwin A. Bayley, Esq., will preside. 
Addresses by Lieutenant-Governor David I. 
Walsh, Honorable Edward G. Frothingham, of 
the Governor's Council, Congressman Frederick 
S. Deitrick, Honorable Samuel J. Elder, Senator 
Charles F. McCarthy, Mayor J. Edward Barry, 
of Cambridge, Reverend Charles Francis Carter, 
Professor David Saville Muzzey, Reverend Charles 
J. Staples and Dr. Edward W. Emerson. 

Gallery open to the public. 

1.30 P. M. Banquet to participating military organ- 
izations in a tent on Hancock School Lawn, Cap- 
tain George F. Reed, Adjutant of the Lexington 
Minute-Men, presiding. (Three hundred thirty- 
eight men in Colonial uniforms were present.) 

4 P. M. Dress Parade on Battle Green of Companies 
in Colonial Uniforms. Address on Battle Green 
by Lieut.-Gov. David L Walsh. 

8 P. M. Band Concert on Common by Waltham 
Watch Company Band. 



Address of James P. Munroe at the Celebra- 
tion of the 200th Anniversary of the 
Incorporation of Lexington, 
June 8, 1913 

Historians, now careful dissectors of the body poli- 
tic, were once mere brilliant painters of its outward 
show. Historical writers of the last century dealt only 
with wars and kings, with triumphs and catastrophes, 
heedless of the great body of the people through whom 
civilization really grows. Such a king reigned and died, 
such wars he waged, such alliances he made, — that 
was the substance of a chronicle as brilliant as it was 
superficial. Births of everyday reformers, deaths of 
commonplace martyrs, wars of classes and of trade, 
holy alliances of virtue and suffering, devil's alliances 
of greed and hatred, — these, the real events of his- 
tory, had no place in this gazette of royalty. The 
progress of nations was, for those old-time chroniclers, 
a kind of lordly game in which none but the honor 
cards had value. That this surface-life of the court 
and battle-field was founded upon a steadily advanc- 
ing under-life of the people, that these kingly hap- 
penings were but the effects of profounder social and 
industrial causes, are facts of quite recent recognition. 

It is true that in its nearly three hundred years of 
history, what is now the United States of America has 
had two great wars, — • wars that in their results were 
among the most momentous in all history; but those 
conflicts were merely the outcropping, so to speak, 
of vaster and deeper forces, to which war was but in- 

[ 9 ] 



cidental. For the significant history of America has 
been one not of kings, but of families; not of courts, 
but of communities; not of bloody conquests of ene- 
mies, but of a splendid mastery of nature and of self. 

It was mainly for the sake of their wives and chil- 
dren that the Pilgrims adventured to the inhospi- 
table shores of Massachusetts; it was the desire to 
establish a community life ordered as they believed 
it should be that brought the Puritans to Salem and to 
Boston; it was not single rovers, it was settlers with 
their families who pushed their brave way to Ohio, 
to the Mississippi, and across prairie and mountain 
to the far North- West. 

Social stability, industry, faith, love of freedom, — 
these were the corner-stones of every lasting struc- 
ture which our forefathers upreared. The greedy 
Spaniard, murderously seeking treasure, the thrifty 
Frenchman, exploiting the fur-trade, the roystering 
Gentlemen Adventurers, imagining the sand-heaps 
of Virginia to be fields of gold, either had no families 
or had cut themselves adrift to court fortune in the 
unknown West. But on the "Mayflower," household 
goods and the distaff filled the spaces which, in the 
ships of earlier voyagers, had been given to weapons 
and munitions of war. The Plymouth Company came 
for peace, for quietude, for escape from a tyrannical 
government. With them their womenkind were first, 
for upon their wives and daughters the weight of per- 
secution fell most heavily. And most of those who 
followed the Pilgrims, whether to New England, to 
Virginia, or to New Amsterdam, had in view that per- 
manent settlement which means the bringing up of 
a family and the establishing of a stable, sober and 
industrious community. These conditions of true 
colonization were especially conspicuous, however, 
in Massachusetts Bay, the settlers wherein, mindful 
of the supreme importance of right training in youth, 

f lo 1 



opened a Latin School five years after they landed, 
founded Harvard College only three years later, and 
enacted a general school-law (the first in the world) 
in 1647. 

Of that preeminently staid and enlightened com- 
munity of which Harvard College was the early-es-- 
tablished centre, Lexington was, so to speak, the third 
child, the earlier offspring, set apart from the original 
Cambridge of 1644, having been Billerica far to the 
north, and Newton to the west and south. 

With the exception of that one "Glorious morning," 
when seventy plain farmers stood and died like heroes, 
the outward history of Lexington has been quiet, un- 
eventful, even humdrum. To attempt to make of it 
a dramatic narrative would be absurd. To cite it, how- 
ever, as a superlative example of forces which made 
America great in the past and which should make her 
greater in the future, is perhaps worth while. 

Six generations have passed since March 31, 1713 
(N.S.), when the "Inhabitants or farmers dwelling 
on a certain Tract of Out Lands within the Township 
of Cambridge in the County of Middlesex liuing remote 
from the Body of the Town towards Concord. . . . 
being now increased . . . obtained Consent of the 
Town & made Application ... to be made a Separate 
& distinct Town, upon such Terms as they & the 
Town of Cambridge have agreed upon"; and since 
the General Court of Massachusetts "ORDERED 
that the aforesaid Tract of Land known by the Name 
of the Northern Precinct in Cambridge be henceforth 
made a separate & distinct Town by the Name of 
LEXINGTON ... & that the Inhabitants of the 
said Town of Lexington be entitled to Have, Use, 
Exercise & Enjoy all such Immunities Powers & Privi- 
leges as other Towns of this Province have & do by 
Law Use Exercise and Enjoy." 

In each of these six generations the world has made 
[ II ] 



always longer strides towards that perfect civilization 
to which mankind aspires. Therefore the two cen- 
turies of Lexington's corporate life have been the 
most fruitful in all human history. Since genuine 
democracy did not begin until 1688, practically the 
whole development of mankind out of feudalism is 
measured by the comparatively short space since 
Lexington was born. 

In the first of those six generations was established 
the newspaper, perhaps the most far-reaching of the 
forces of enlightenment; in the second the people of 
America issued successful from the first great con- 
flict between privilege and justice; in the third, the face 
of Europe and the whole current of her affairs were 
changed by the French Revolution and Napoleon's 
astonishing career; the fourth generation witnessed 
first the Reform Bill and then the epoch-making up- 
heavals of 1848; in the fifth the people of the United 
States were forever welded by a civil conflict there- 
tofore unheard of in its magnitude; while in the sixth 
there has been such industrial and social transforma- 
tion as has filled the world of 191 3 with problems un- 
known and inconceivable in 1881. 

In these six wonderful periods of democratic ad- 
vance, this Town played a conspicuous part only in 
the second, but what she did in that second genera- 
tion not only profoundly affected the four generations 
succeeding, but will influence world history to the very 
end of time. In the every-day life of Lexington, more- 
over, have been conspicuously exhibited those deter- 
mining forces which created New England, the Mid- 
dle West, and the great North- West, — the forces of 
family integrity, community responsibility, and sober 
striving towards ever higher standards and ideals. 

In 1713, when the Order of the General Court was 
passed, there were within the territory of Lexington less 
than five hundred persons. Partly because the Town 

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had been settled by the overflowing of surrounding 
communities, partly because the area now centering 
in the Common had been held for many years in the 
so-called Pelham grant, a larger proportion of those 
inhabitants lived on the outskirts than in the neigh- 
borhood of the single meeting-house. Therefore, dur- 
ing more than a half-century after its first settlement, 
the people of Cambridge Farms were compelled to 
travel from five to ten miles to the meeting-house at 
Cambridge, and for fully another fifty years after 
Cambridge had permitted the erection of a meeting- 
house at the Farms, most of the worshipers were 
still obliged to journey from one to three miles every 
Sabbath to attend the services. Yet, because of the 
strict Puritanism of the day, which frowned upon or 
actually punished absence from the Sunday meeting, 
the townspeople, — thus forced to spend at least one 
day in seven in each other's company — had developed 
a solidarity and community feeling otherwise difficult, 
if not impossible, to bring about. 

For, however scattered the population, everything 
in those Puritan days must focus in the village meet- 
ing-house. Attendance upon Divine service was made 
urgent both by public opinion and by fear of fu- 
ture punishment. Moreover, the town-meetings — ■ 
held, down to 1846, within the sacred building — gave 
almost as much time to such parish questions as the 
choice of a minister, his compensation, and his ortho- 
doxy, as to the secular problems of roads and school- 
houses. Within the meeting-house every child whose 
parents hoped for its salvation must be baptized, 
every older citizen who cared for public opinion must 
have a regular sitting, every sinner might at any mo- 
ment be summoned for public confession and judg- 
ment. While many could not, and many did not, 
become legal members of the church body, only those 
admitted to church fellowship enjoyed full measure of 

[ 13 ] 



community rights; and ambition for social standing 
could get its accepted seal only from the church or- 
ganization, which, by its seating in the meeting-house, 
fixed for five- or ten-year periods the exact degree of 
dignity of every family. 

Furthermore, many personal disputes in the com- 
munity were settled by the minister, under whose 
charge also, direct or indirect, was the schooling of the 
children, and in whose study those who sought a higher 
education prepared, as a rule, for Harvard or Yale 
College. Those institutions themselves existed at that 
time almost solely for the training of the ministry; 
and in many other ways there was continually em- 
phasized to all the people of a New England commun- 
ity the supremacy not only in spiritual, but also in 
temporal matters, of the Puritan Church. 

That church, however, was not autocratic; it was 
Congregational, ruled in temporal affairs by the par- 
ish (and every early New England town was also a 
parish or several parishes), and in spiritual matters 
by those admitted to church fellowship. Each New 
England town was, therefore, a religious democracy, 
which, inspired by Biblical example, put conspicuous 
emphasis upon family life, parental control and com- 
munity responsibility. Every influence in a Massa- 
chusetts town during the eighteenth, and far into the 
nineteenth, century tended to magnify the responsi- 
bility of the male head of a family to rear his children 
in godliness and industry, to bring them early into 
communion with the orthodox faith, and to inspire 
them with a feeling of personal obligation towards the 
place in which they lived. 

Second only to the meeting-house as an educator 
in family and community responsibility, was the 
town-meeting, which, because it dealt with church 
affairs, and in most instances was held in the meeting- 
house, partook not a little of the sacredness of the 

[ 14 ] 



actual Sabbath service. The New England town- 
meeting was, and is, the most democratic parliament 
in the world. The moderator has, within certain rigid 
limits, autocratic powers; but so long as those bounds 
are not crossed, the humblest voter is equal, in free- 
dom of debate and liberty of challenge, as well as in 
the actual count of votes, to the richest or most highly- 
educated. As soon as a youth is twenty-one he may 
begin to practise every right, responsibility and duty 
of citizenship; and long before that day, the average 
village-bred boy is getting an admirable education in 
social responsibility by listening to the often tedious, 
often irrelevant, but always thoroughly democratic, 
town-meeting debates. 

The very legislative Order which created Lexing- 
ton commanded the constable to call a town-meeting; 
and within six days the ''Inhabitants duly qualified 
for Votes" had not only elected numerous town offi- 
cers, but their selectmen had agreed that they would 
"build a Pound, . . . erect a Payer of Stocks, and Pro- 
vide the Town with Waights and measurs." Two 
weeks later, the citizens, duly assembled, granted 
"416 Pounds mony to the Comitte for Building of 
the meeting-house." 

That second meeting-house (the first having been 
built in 1692) stood, as did its successor (erected in 
1794 and burned in 1846) on the easterly end of the 
Common. The Common itself had been purchased only 
two years before the Town's incorporation from 
"Nibour" Muzzy; so that almost contemporaneously 
with the erection of Lexington were established the 
forum for inciting and the theatre for enacting the 
first battle of the Revolutionary War. 

In June of the year following incorporation, the 
Selectmen "agred that John Muzzy should have thare 
aprobation to Kep a publique House of Entertaine- 
ment: and his father did Ingage before the selectmen 

[ 15 ] 



to a Comadate his son John with stabble roome haye 
and Pastuering: so fare as he stood In nead: for the 
Suport of Strangers." 

Eleven years earlier, John Muzzy 's father, Benja- 
min, had established the first tavern in Cambridge 
Farms, on the edge of what he later sold for a Com- 
mon and close to the meeting-house. If that old Muz- 
zy, or Buckman, Tavern, which the citizens have so 
generously and wisely acquired, could speak, what a 
story it could tell: of the strangers coming from New 
Hampshire and . Vermont for entertainment — as it 
was called — on their last night before reaching Bos- 
ton; of the detailed town gossip exchanged there over 
flip and cider betwixt Sabbath services ; of the sermons 
carried across in drowsy summer days from the open 
windows of the meeting-house, sermons that, as Colo- 
nial affairs became more critical, grew more and more 
to resemble the calls to battle of the old Hebrew 
prophets; of the long debates in town-meeting over 
the schools, the roads, the acts of the Great and Gen- 
eral Court and the unwarranted usurpations of his 
Majesty's government; and, finally, of that cool night 
in April when the alarm of Revere having called the 
Minute-Men together at two in the morning, the 
"greater part of them" being dismissed temporarily, 
"went to Buckman's Tavern," and then, at half- 
past four, precipitately rushed out again to fall in 
line, — seventy farmers opposing eight hundred British 
troops. The old house itself actually took part in the 
affray, for from its back door, and again from its front 
door, at least one man aimed at the British, and drew 
upon the building a return fire, the marks of whiph 
remain to-day. 

The courageous decision not only to face an over- 
whelming foe, but also to take the imminent risk of 
being hanged, was no sudden impulse on the part of 
those plain citizens of Lexington. They were not hot- 

f i6 1 



headed youth, bred to idleness and eager for a quarrel; 
they were not mercenaries with whom fighting is a 
trade; they were not swashbucklers glad to seize any 
excuse for rioting and bloodshed. They were sober and 
thinking citizens, for the most part heads of families. 
Their wives and children were within sound of their 
muskets; their homes, their lands, their church, — all 
that they held dear — were witnesses to their boldness 
in defying the power of Great Britain, a power that 
could, if the issue of the conflict went against them, 
wipe out their township, beggar their families and 
gibbet them as rebels to their King. 

It is true that most of them were accustomed to the 
bearing of arms. Those were still pioneer days when 
the use of the musket was a necessary part of educa- 
tion; and many of the Minute-Men had been honor- 
able actors in the long war against the French and 
Indians. But they were not soldiers in the usual mean- 
ing; they were citizen-defenders, driven to the des- 
perate stand they took by a long series of tyrannies, 
the continuance of which, they foresaw, would be 
worse than even forfeiture and hanging. Every man 
of them realized what he was doing ; knew why he did 
it; and stood ready to accept the consequences. This 
fact, and also the fact that, in the proportion of those 
killed and wounded to the total force engaged, this 
was one of the bloodiest of battles, make the fight on 
Lexington Green a great event in human history. 

So far as concerns Massachusetts as a whole, the 
resistance at Lexington may be said to date from 
1646, when the Colony made its first formal protest 
against the pretensions of the English Parliament; 
but so far as concerns Lexington itself, the Battle 
may be declared to have begun with the ordination, in 
1698, of the Reverend John Hancock, grandfather of 
him whose bold signature stands first upon the Declar- 
ation. The Reverend John Hancock ministered to 

[ 17 ] 



the people of Lexington for fifty-five years, a real 
shepherd to his sheep, one who made them feel in the 
highest degree their responsibilities to their families and 
to the community in which they lived. Dying in 1752, 
"Bishop" Hancock, as he was sometimes called, was 
succeeded by his grandson-in-law, the Reverend Jonas 
Clarke, an unfailing fount of inspiration to those who 
defended human rights at Lexington. From his or- 
dination in 1755, Parson Clarke, both in the pulpit 
and on the floor of the town-meeting, kept before his 
people the supreme sacredness of liberty, the right 
of resistance to oppression, and the solemn duty of 
transmitting to posterity the privileges of freemen 
that the fathers won. 

The instructions given to the successive represen- 
tatives to the General Court, and to other assemblages, 
by Lexington town-meetings, beginning as early as 
1765, and extending practically through the Revolu- 
tionary War, were all written by Jonas Clarke, and 
are models of trenchant English and of cogent reason- 
ing. In remonstrating against the Stamp Act, Par- 
son Clarke said, through the medium of the town- 
meeting: — ■ 

"... when we Consider the invaluable Rights 
and Liberties we now possess, the Firmness and Reso- 
lution of our Fathers, for the Support and Preservation 
of them for us, and how Much we owe to our Selves 
and to Posterity, we Cannot but look upon it as an 
unpardonable Neglect, any longer to delay expressing 
how deeply we are Concerned at Some Measures 
adopted by the late Ministry." (and) . . . "We earn- 
estly recommend to You (our representatives) the 
most calm, decent and dispassionate Measures, for 
an open. Explicit and resolute assertion and vindi- 
cation of our Charter Rights and Liberties; and that 
the Same be so entered upon Record, that the World 
may see, and future Generations Know, that the 

[ 18 1 



present both knew and valued the Rights they en- 
joyed, and did not tamely resign them for Chains 
and Slavery." 

Subsequent instructions, remonstrances and re- 
solves all breathe the same spirit of lofty patriotism; 
and in due time it was resolved, unanimously, **That 
if any Head of a Family in this Town, or any Person 
shall from this time forward; and untill the Duty be 
taken off; purchase any Tea, or Use, or consume any 
Tea in their Famelies, such person shall be looked 
upon as an Enemy to this Town, and to this Country, 
and shall by this Town be treated with Neglect and 
Contempt." 

The work of Parson Clarke was not limited, how- 
ever, to these occasional documents. Almost every 
Sunday, in the ten years preceding the opening of the 
Revolution, he is said to have urged from the pulpit, 
in such indirect manner as was consistent with due 
reverence, the fundamental truths for which he be- 
lieved the New England Church, as well as the New 
England Town-Meeting, should unalterably stand. 
Consequently, the very walls of the meeting-house 
became saturated with the spirit of resistance to op- 
pression ; and the humble farmer folk who listened Sun- 
day after Sunday to their parson's preaching must 
have come to regard it as beyond question that they 
should go to any lengths necessary to preserve for 
their children the heritage of freedom which they and 
their ancestors had, by their labor and self-sacrifice, 
so hardly won. Indeed, as early as December, 1773, 
in their remonstrance against the taxation of tea, the 
inhabitants of Lexington declared: "We are ready 
and resolved to concur with" . . . ("our brethren in 
Boston, and other Towns") "in every rational Meas- 
ure, that may be Necessary for the Preservation or 
Recovery of our Rights and Liberties- as Englishmen 
and Christians; and we trust in GOD That should 

[ 19 ] 



the State of Our Affairs require it, We shall be ready to 
Sacrifice our Estates, and every thing dear in Life, Yea 
and Life itself, in support of the common Caused' 

Thus was plainly foreshadowed the beginning of re- 
volt, the only question being that of time and place. 
Consequently, when it was ordained that the time for 
armed resistance should be in the spring of 1775, and 
that the place should be along the march of the Brit- 
ish troops from Boston to destroy the military stores 
at Concord, the little band of Lexington Minute-Men 
took it as a matter of course that they should inter- 
pose their seventy bodies across the pathway of eight 
hundred troops. They could have had no thought or 
hope of stopping that expedition ; they had no fanatic 
dream of martyrdom ; — they simply were carrying 
out at the foreordained moment the instructions which 
they had received, Sunday after Sunday, and in town- 
meeting after town-meeting, from the voice and pen 
of their great spiritual leader. 

Not even the soul of Jonas Clarke could lead, how- 
ever, unless there were other great souls ready to be 
led. The Minute-Men of Lexington were not of so- 
called noble or even gentle blood, the rules of chivalry 
were unknown to them, they were unread in the tales 
of heroes, whether classic or mediaeval. But they 
and their forebears for nearly two centuries had loved 
freedom in the abstract, and had known it in the con- 
crete. They had ruled themselves in church and in 
town-meeting; and they knew that the acts of Eng- 
land, unless resisted, must put an end to that self- 
government. To stop the British troops was impos- 
sible ; but to show to the British government that they, 
the fathers of the hamlet of Lexington, were indeed 
"ready," as they had many months before declared, 
"to Sacrifice, Yea, Life itself in support of the com- 
mon Cause," was possible. Two volleys were enough 
to disperse them; but in thus nonchalantly ending 

[ 20 1 



seven lives, Smith and Pitcairn signed the death- 
warrant of the British army in America, severed from 
England a territory of enormous area and incalcu- 
lable value, broke forever the power of the English 
throne, and, indirectly, sowed the dragon's teeth from 
which were to spring the devastating legions of Napo- 
leon. • 

Well may we of Lexington, of Massachusetts, and 
of all America, preserve this acre of greensward, 
bought from "Nibour" Muzzy for £l6, but made 
priceless by the blood of those seven Minute-Men. 
Jonas Parker, father of ten children, the youngest 
still in her teens, vowed he would never run, and fell 
on the spot where he first stood, bayoneted in the 
very act of reloading. Robert Munroe, a standard 
bearer at Louisburg, a man advanced in years, died 
as Ensign, holding again, at least metaphorically, 
the flag at Lexington. Samuel Hadley, with three 
small children at home; and John Brown, a youth of 
twenty-four, were slain after they had obeyed Pit- 
cairn's order and had left the field. John Muzzy, in 
the prime of life, "was found dead," as John Munroe 
testified, "near the place where our line was formed"; 
Caleb Harrington, another youth of twenty-four, was 
shot while leaving the meeting-house where, before the 
fight, he and others had gone to remove, if possible, 
a quantity of powder; and Jonathan Harrington, 
fighting literally before his own fireside, his wife and 
child watching him from the window, crawled, mor- 
tally bleeding, to his doorstep and died at his wife's 
feet. 

These men, — some veterans, some scarcely more 
than lads, some with the responsibilities of households, 
others with the burdens and rewards of life still ahead 
of them — fought and died^ not for money or glory 
or the love of battle. They fought in defence of the 
Town-Meeting, that instrument which, in the hands 

[ 21 ] 



of freemen, is the basis of all efficient government; 
they fought in defence of the family, that indispen- 
sable foundation of real civilization; they fought in 
defence of the Church, which, whether Catholic or 
Protestant, whether Episcopal or Congregational, 
whether your faith or my faith or the faith of those 
who worship in divers and, to us, strange ways, is the 
eternal flame that gives to government, to family, and 
to civilization itself, their essential and enduring 
worth. 



LEXINGTON 

Stanzas by Percy MacKaye 

{Read by Rev. John M. Wilson) 

"Where is the little town of Lexington? 

Oh, I have lost my way!" — 
But all the brawling people hurried on : 

Why should they stay 
To watch a tattered boy, with wistful face. 
Dazed by the roaring strangeness of the place? — 

In wondering scorn 
Turning, he tapped the powder from his powder-horn. 

"Where is my blood-bright hearth of Lexington?" — 

Strangely the kindling cry 
Startled the crowded street; yet every one 

Still scrambled by 
Into the shops and markets; till at last 
Went by a pensive scholar. As he passed. 

Sudden, to whet 
Of steel, he heard a flint-lock flash : their faces met. 

"What like, then, is your little Lexington?" 

"Oh, sir, it is my home. 
Which I have lost." — The scholar's sharp eyes shone. 

"Come with me! Come, 
And I will show you, old and hallowed, all 
Its maps and marks and shafts memorial." — 

Out of the roar 
They went, into green silence where old elm trees soar. 

[ 23 ] 



"Here is your little town of Lexington: 

Let fall your eyes 
And read the old inscription on this stone: 

* Beneath this lies 
The first who fell in our dear country's fight 
For revolution and the freeman's right.' " 

The boy's eyes fell, 
But shining swiftly rose: "Yes, I remember well! 

"Yet there lies not my lost home Lexington: 

For none who fall 
At Lexington is buried under stone ; 

And eyes of all 
Who fight at Lexington look up at God 
Not down upon His servants under sod 

Whose souls are sped; 
They lie who say in Lexington free men are dead." 

"My son, I said not so of Lexington. 

'There lie the bones,' 
I said, 'of great men, and their souls are gone.' 

God sends but once 
His lightning-flash to strike the sacred spot. 
Our great sires are departed." — "They are not! 

I am alive. 
/ fought at Lexington ; you see, I still survive ! 

"And still I live to fight at Lexington. 

I am come far 
From Russian steppes and Balkan valleys, wan 

With ghostly war. 
Where still the holy watchword in the fight 
Was Revolution and the freeman' s right! — 

Now I am come 
Back with that battle-cry to help my own dear home. 

[ 24 ] 



"Here, here it lies — my lost home Lexington! 

Not there in dust, 
But here in the great highway of the sun, 

Where still the lust 
Of arrogant power flaunts its regiments, 
And lurking hosts of tyranny pitch their tents. 

And still the yoke 
Of heavy-laden labor weighs on simple folk. 

"Our country cries for living Lexington! 

From mine and slum 
And hearths where man's rebellion still burns on. 

Rolls the deep drum : 
Ah, not to elegize but emulate 
Is homage worthy of the heroic great. 

Whose memoried spot 
Serves but to quicken fire from ashes long forgot. 

"Here, then, O little town of Lexington, 

Burning anew 
Our muskets for the battle long begun 

For freedom ! — You, 
O you, my comrades, called from all world-clans, 
Here, by the deeds of dear Americans 

That cannot die. 
Let Lexington be still our revolution-cry!" 



Oration delivered at the Two Hundredth 

Anniversary Exercises of Lexington, 

Sunday June 8, 1913, 

by Rev. Edward Cummings of Cambridge 

Lexington is two hundred years young, just passing 
her second century milestone. As you have already 
been told, these exercises this afternoon are only the 
prelude to the real birthday festivities which are in 
store for you. I suppose they are called exercises, be- 
cause they give you a chance to exercise your patience. 
They are particularly appropriate because they teach 
people, young and old, the kind of prolonged Sunday 
discipline that your ancestors used frequently to in- 
flict upon themselves. 

It is your privilege, therefore, on this occasion, to 
have the ample birthday cake brought in by Mr. 
Locke, bright with its two hundred candles, — one 
for each of the shining years that have so swiftly 
passed away, and one more candle for Lexington to 
"grow upon." For fortunately, or unfortunately, 
Lexington has not got her growth. How we wish 
sometimes that we could keep her just as she is! 
Just as the world has known her and loved her so 
long; with something of the quaint and quiet beauty 
of a rural priestess tending the fires of patriotism on 
the altar of the sylvan temple that marks the spot 
where the spirit of liberty sprang fully armed from 
the blood of the martyr heroes. 

But since Lexington must grow, God grant she 
may not grow too fast for her own good. God grant 

[ 26 1 



she may never outgrow the sacred memories and hal- 
lowed traditions of the past. God grant that she may 
always keep the fires burning brightly on the altar 
of liberty, that she may remain forever the mecca of 
the patriot pilgrim, the inspirer of the lovers of liberty 
all round the world. 

First of all, then, after thanking you for the distin- 
guished honor you have conferred upon me, it is my 
proud and happy privilege as a citizen of Cambridge 
to bring you the greetings of your nearest kin. For 
Cambridge likes to remind the world that the maiden 
name of Lexington was Cambridge Farms, and that 
she took her first degree in independence as a pre- 
cinct in the family circle of her Cambridge alma mater. 
History records, as your historian has just observed, 
the reluctance with which the young mother granted 
the full degree of independence which the eager daugh- 
ter sought in order that she might erect a family altar 
of her own. But who can blame the youthful mother 
for hesitating to let such a daughter go? How could 
any but a prophet know that when she took the name 
of "Lexington" she was wedding with eternal fame 
and destined to make that name the synonym for 
courage and patriotism? But now her alma mater 
hails Lexington with joy and pride as one of her oldest 
living graduates, as the most distinguished of all the 
sons and daughters whose glory has added lustre to 
the alma mater's name. 

But Cambridge does not speak for herself alone. 
Every sister township in the family circle of this 
ancient commonwealth is present here in spirit, wish- 
ing you many happy returns of the day ! If your eyes 
are open you can see the gratitude and love that shines 
from their faces. If your ears are unstopped you can 
hear the chorus of gratitude and praise and thanks- 
giving for the past, and good wishes and blessings for 
the future. Yes, if your eyes are opened you can see 

[ 27 ] 



beyond that circle of the family commonwealth the 
larger circle of the national family of these United 
and Re-united States, a glorious sisterhood, standing 
side by side, with outstretched hands full of birthday 
garlands, while the Nation, "beautiful our country," 
wreathes from the choicest blossoms of half a hun- 
dred grateful States a chaplet which she lays upon the 
brows of Lexington to-day with prayers of thanksgiv- 
ing for the past and of blessing for the future. 

Yes, if your eyes are opened you can see, beyond 
the mighty circle of the national family, that still 
greater half-formed circle of the Family of Nations. 
You can see the great cloud of witnesses, lovers of 
liberty and of freedom out of every nation and kin- 
dred and tongue, who to-day rise up to call you blessed, 
and join with us in wishing you Godspeed. 

But we must not deceive ourselves by thinking 
that these exercises, or even the civic and military 
parades and other functions which are to follow, are 
the real celebration of this two-hundredth anniver- 
sary. The real celebration has already taken place. 
Devoted sons and daughters of Lexington have al- 
ready made this anniversary memorable by generous 
gifts, by loving service, by many substantial tokens of 
affection and loyalty, which will make their beloved 
town happier, better, and more beautiful to the end 
of time. 

If you seek these monuments, go out and look 
around you. Thanks to good fortune, thanks to the 
foresight and efficiency of your remarkable Histori- 
cal Society, thanks to public and private generosity, 
and to all combined, you have succeeded in preserv- 
ing historic buildings which are a priceless legacy to 
the future, as they have been a priceless heritage to 
you from the past. This acquisition of land and build- 
ings is a monument which will do more than anything 
else could do to preserve the atmosphere of this his- 

f 28 1 



toric town and make it forever the mecca of those 
devotees who come from distant states and foreign 
lands to pay their vows at this shrine, and drink the 
healing waters that shall ever flow from this foun- 
tain of liberty. 

Again, the revision of Hudson's famous History of 
Lexington is a great literary monument, which will 
mark this second milestone far more prominently 
than any monument of stone or bronze could do. In 
some respects the second volume of that remarkable 
history, which contains your town genealogy, is the 
most characteristic and the most prophetic part of 
this great literary monument; characteristic, because 
the splendid democracy of that genealogical record, 
which includes every person well identified with Lex- 
ington, by birth or residence or relationship, shows 
that the democratic spirit of the fathers of 171 3 still 
survives to bind the children together in one family 
after the lapse of two hundred years; prophetic, be- 
cause it is a witness to the reality and vigor of that 
family spirit upon which the future of your town de- 
pends, — upon which the future of all democracy 
depends! For the family spirit is the very life of de- 
mocracy. 

This monumental genealogy of Lexington, there- 
fore, reminds all whose name is written in it that they 
not only have a past to be proud of, but a future to 
work for; that they are not only sons and daughters 
and joint heirs of a glorious heritage, but that they 
are co-partners in a great cooperative family enter- 
prise ; that they all belong to the great business house 
of the "Sons and Daughters of Lexington, Unlimited," 
whose inspiring work it is to make the future worthy 
of the past, to see to it that their descendants have 
as much reason to be thankful to their forefathers as 
you have for being thankful to yours. 

It is my simple and congenial task to turn the tele- 
[ 29 ] 



scope of history around, and looking through it to 
read the future by the light of the past, and tell you 
the nature of this work you have to do. In some re- 
spects the unexplored future is a much safer place 
for an imaginative person, like an orator or a poet, 
than the past. For when Paul Revere gallops gal- 
lantly into Concord on Longfellow's Pegasus, I ob- 
serve that your historian is highly scandalized, and 
calls attention to the fact that the real horseman was 
arrested and detained by the King's officers several 
miles before he reached the town. But in describing 
the future there are no inconvenient historical socie- 
ties to correct your statements, point out errors, show 
that dates are wrong, or insist that Pegasus shall 
travel the bridle path of ordinary horseflesh. 

Moreover, there is another reason for dealing with 
the future, and that is you are in greater need of in- 
formation about it. You already know about the 
past. They have been telling you about your past for 
generations. I dare say your Historical Society could 
fill a whole library with orations, disquisitions and 
dissertations on your past. And it would n't be much 
of a circulating library either. Now in these later 
years the Commonwealth itself officially opens the 
retrospective oratory. Your history the world knows 
by heart. The names of your heroes are household 
words. The school children of fifty sovereign states 
are familiar with the story of your town and the pic- 
tures of your famous houses. The piety, the patriot- 
ism, the courage of your ancestors, are proverbial. 
The virtues of your citizens are known to all. "Old 
New England at her best," is the universal verdict 
passed on Lexington. What could be better than old 
New England at her best? 

But the only justification for such a great, heroic 
past is a worthy future. There is no use having "Min- 
ute Men" for ancestors if you are going to have 

[ 30 ] 



minute men for descendants. The only worthy de- 
scendants of "Minute Men" are men of the hour! You 
have no right to dwell on the historic past unless at 
the sarrie time you live in the present for the future. 
History studying which does not lead to history mak- 
ing is a vice. The kind of history study that is content 
with looking back is an opiate, a drug, which pro- 
duces in its victims a morbid complacency and con- 
tent, which gradually develop into sleeping sickness, 
from which the patient seldom, if ever, can be waked. 

If, now, we turn our historical telescope toward the 
future, what do we foresee? Sad to relate, we see that 
history is about to repeat itself. Another battle of 
Lexington is impending; another, larger and more 
formidable army is marching on your town. Already 
this new enemy has swarmed out of Boston and over 
the neighboring towns. Slowly but surely it is ad- 
vancing along the highways and spreading over the 
fields in your direction. It is not a red-coat army of 
regulars marching on foot. The new enemy comes by 
railroads and street cars, subways and elevated, autos 
and flying machines. You can see the dust and smoke 
of the advancing host. You can hear the blare of 
their whistles and their horns by day and see the glare 
of their headlights in the night. Already you can hear 
the rumble of their artillery, the booming — not of 
cannon, but of real estate. 

The advance guard of prosperity is upon you. The 
rising tide of population threatens to engulf you, — 
a living human tide that brings with it the dread 
Armada of three-deckers. You must fight against 
these Goths and Vandals and Philistines of the great 
army of commercial prosperity as your fathers fought 
against the invaders in revolutionary days. They 
spare nothing. Their block houses will convert 
your fields and orchards into teeming barracks. 
Their skyscrapers will convert your quiet homes into 

[ 31 ] 



cliff dwellings, and your village streets into roaring 
canons. 

Your enemies are some of them of your own house. 
There will arise among you local Augustuses who will 
want to boast that they found Lexington of wood and 
left it of brick and mortar and concrete. Advance 
agents of posterity will run up their flags with the 
seductive motto, "A larger, lustier and livelier Lex- 
ington." You must summon the men of the hour if 
you would save your town. 

Fortunately, history is repeating itself in more ways 
than one. Just as the invaders of revolutionary times 
found the Minute-Men prepared and armed, so these 
new invaders find the men of the hour not unprepared 
and not unarmed. Wise, farseeing, patriotic citizens 
have been preparing for this conflict, — fortifying 
your town against the advancing hosts, acquiring 
historic buildings, and occupying strategic places be- 
fore the invading army could acquire them and put 
up in place of your historic tavern a "Battle Green 
Plaza." These wise and patriotic citizens have been 
arousing the spirit of civic devotion, of reverence for 
the past, of service for the present; the spirit of local 
patriotism and national patriotism as well. 

Fortunately Lexington has never lacked a Munroe 
and a "Munroe Doctrine" of her own; and evidently 
your Piper has not piped in vain in his effort to arouse 
the citizens to meet this emergency and save the town 
for themselves and for their children; for the State, 
for the nation, for humanity. If it were not for these 
wise preparations your case would be well-nigh hope- 
less. As it is, however, you have a chance to win if 
you are willing to fight; if you are willing to follow 
your leaders as the fathers of old followed theirs. You, 
remember, are the forefathers and the foremothers of 
the coming generation. If you follow your leaders as 
your ancestors followed theirs, then this twentieth 

[ 32 ] 



century battle of Lexington will be a glorious vic- 
tory. 

That is the next great battle of Lexington, — the 
fight for physical self-preservation; a long, patient, 
patriotic struggle against great odds. For the days 
of terrible prosperity are the days that try the souls 
of towns as well as individuals and nations and civil- 
izations. To win this great victory is the first work 
of that great business house of "The Sons and Daugh- 
ters of Lexington, Unlimited" of which I spoke. If 
they win that victory, then they can feel that they 
have met their obligation to the past and fulfilled 
their duty to the present and the future. 

But my prophetic telescope reveals another and a 
more congenial task to which the "Sons and Daugh- 
ters of Lexington" must dedicate themselves with 
the unreserved enthusiasm of pious fervor and patri- 
otic zeal. Lexington is proud to call herself the birth- 
place of Liberty, because from the blood of martyr 
heroes shed on yonder green, arose the invincible 
spirit of liberty which spread over land and sea until 
it had given birth to a mighty nation and changed 
the course of human history. 

And since those days the Goddess of Liberty has 
been the tutelary genius of the lovers of freedom every- 
where in the world. But strange to say, they have 
worshiped blindly thus far, seeing the face of liberty 
through a glass darkly and not face to face. Great 
crimes have been committed in her name because 
they saw her not as she really was. Great wrongs are 
daily being committed in her name in our social, 
political and industrial organizations because we do 
not see her as she really is. 

But you, on this historic spot, have looked upon 
the very [^f ace of freedom. Your fathers looked on that 
divine, maternal face, and were ready to die for the 
love they bore her. You have received as a natural 

[ 33 ] 



heritage that knowledge of what liberty really is, for 
lack of which the rest of the world is sinning, strug- 
gling, fighting and literally dying. 

You know, as your fathers taught, that the only 
true liberty is family liberty; the liberty of sons and 
daughters united by bonds of mutual devotion and 
cooperation: above all, by the devotion of the strong 
to the weak, which makes the weak strong and the 
strong stronger, and the whole world better and bet- 
ter. The true motto which you have learned is not 
the old revolutionary motto, "Liberty, Equality, 
Fraternity," but the new evolutionary motto. The 
Liberty and Equality of Fraternity; fraternal liberty 
and equality; the liberty and equality of sons and 
daughters of one family. 

You have received that great revelation, — that 
knowledge which is literally more precious than rubies 
and more to be desired than gold, and much fine gold, 
because upon it rests the salvation of individuals 
and nations and civilizations as well as towns. It is 
your supreme duty and great privilege to translate 
that precious knowledge into live institutions. It is 
for you to make Lexington, not simply the fabled 
birthplace of liberty, but the home of liberty, her 
dwelling place, where she can be seen in the work, in 
the life, in the institutions of the people. You must 
embody this great family ideal, this family spirit in 
all your institutions. You must make your schools 
worthy of the home of liberty, — so that they shall 
offer to every boy and girl in this great social family 
fraternal liberty and equality; not the dead level of 
equal attainment or equality of possession, but equal 
opportunity to make the most of God — or Nature- 
given inequalities. You must heed the word which 
Plato gave the world so long ago, and see to it that 
the gold child, the silver child and the iron child all 
have opportunity to make the most of themselves, — 

[ 34 ] 



no matter whether the child is born in a family of 
gold or one of iron. Your teachers must realize the 
great, fundamental, democratic truth, that nature is 
no respecter of persons; and that in the humblest 
schoolroom and the poorest pupil, she may be minis- 
tering to a patriot, a hero, a savior of mankind. You 
must make every schoolhouse and every teacher good 
enough for that heroic child, good enough for your 
child, good enough for the best of all the children of 
Lexington. 

You must also embody that great family principle 
in your business. Your "business houses," your firms, 
your shops, your factories, must be literally business 
houses; not workhouses simply, but industrial fami- 
lies. They, too, are a part of the great democracy. 
You must change the spelling of your manufactories, 
so it shall read, not manufactories, but waw-factories. 
You must see to it that those at the head of these 
industrial households are imbued with the true family 
spirit of the devotion of the strong to the weak. You 
must realize that the most important capital with 
which you do your daily business is not the seen and 
visible capital, but the invisible, spiritual capital. 
You must realize that the Master was right when he 
told the world to seek first this invisible, spiritual 
wealth of the family Kingdom of God and his right- 
eousness, and the ''things'' we so long for would be 
added unto them as the by-product of righteousness. 

You must also have homes for your people to live in. 
They must not be simply houses; they must be homes. 
The housing proposition is a fundamental one in any 
community. A house which has not in it the possi- 
bilities of home is a pesthouse, and must not be toler- 
ated in this new Lexington of yours. You must show 
the world that Lexington has seen the rising Star 
of Bethlehem, the star of our new Christian civiliza- 
tion; and that you, too, have learned the great lesson 

[ 35 ] 



which the wise men taught, and are bringing your 
gifts of wisdom and of wealth to the humblest family 
and the humblest child. 

That is your great work. It is not an easy task 
and it is only a part of the great task which your fore- 
fathers undertook, and to which they dedicated 
themselves, their town, and their children. They 
were willing to sacrifice and to die for these ideals of 
religious and civil liberty, — of family liberty. You, 
too, must be ready to make sacrifices and to work and 
to live for these ideals. 

If you can do these two things — and filial piety, 
patriotism and self-interest are bidding you do these 
things — you will accomplish your great work. If 
you can work out your physical salvation and your 
industrial salvation, and in addition to that work out 
your spiritual salvation, you will prove yourselves 
worthy descendants of the Minute-Men, — men of the 
hour and of the ages to come. 

In no other way can you hope to pay your debt to 
the past or discharge your obligation to the future. 
If you can succeed in doing this, then you, too, in 
your turn, will have added another chapter to our 
sacred American history. Your fathers were Old Tes- 
tament men. They did not make the unhappy dis- 
tinction between sacred and profane, between reli- 
gious and secular, which we have learned to make. 
They came hither to establish in this wilderness God's 
commonwealth. The only law which they recognized 
as supreme was God's law. The only law they thought 
worth embodying in legislation was divine law. They 
meant to make this God's country. Your history is 
a part of the sacred history of America; it is written 
in our Books of Exodus, and Deuteronomy, and Levi- 
ticus, and Judges; it is written in the books of our 
major and minor prophets, who ministered at these 
altars here in the wilderness and proclaimed the mes- 

[ 36 ] 



sages of their Jehovah in no uncertain voice, and 
dared oppose the sovereign will of the King of Kings 
to the will of any earthly potentate. 

These patriarchs made possible our sacred Ameri- 
can history. Many a stirring scene in that history was 
written here. Some of it was written with their heart's 
blood. And they were right when they thought that 
the only supreme law was the law of the All-Father 
of the great human family. They were right when they 
thought that the only nation worth establishing was 
a great religious State, — not a state church, but a 
great church State of the family Kingdom of Heaven 
here on earth. 

And if this birthday festival means what it ought 
to mean to you, it is a solemn dedication of yourselves, 
your children, your town, to the perpetuation of these 
great ideals. Be true to those ideals, true to the fathers, 
true to yourselves, and Lexington shall forever be 
the home, as well as the birthplace of liberty; and 
here, at the inextinguishable flame of this altar, shall 
future ages kindle the torch of courage, devotion, 
patriotism and piety. Do this, and Lexington, even 
though it must become a city, shall become a city 
set upon a hill of fame which can never be hid. 



PRINTED AT 

QTije Sliberei&e ^xesi Cambridge 



